Hunter-Habib
AH legend
After returning from his life’s first African safari (to Tanzania) with me last month, my eldest grandson suddenly realized that he has become hopelessly addicted to hunting in the Dark Continent (much like what I unfortunately discovered about myself upon returning from Kenya in 1974). So I decided that the young man needs his first centerfire rifle. And today, I gifted him what I consider to be a reasonably good find.
It’s an Anschutz Modell 110 in the venerable .30-06 Springfield caliber (a caliber with which I’ve enjoyed immense success over the years against both African plains game and leopards). Anschutz in Germany collaborated with Savage in the United States to build a limited production run of these rifles from 1963-1970 and retail them through the famed Waffen Frankonia in Germany. They were built on Savage Model 110 actions but the barrels were proofed and the weapons restocked in Germany.
This particular specimen carries the “167” date code, denoting a manufacture date of January 1967. It is built on one of the early Savage Model 110 actions that were produced between 1958-1965. These early actions featured an unique spring loaded ejector, compared to the conventional push-feed plunger type ejector which Savage began to employ in the Model 110 starting from 1966 onwards. It features a blind magazine with a 6 round capacity (5 in the magazine + 1 in the chamber) and the barrel has a 1:10 twist rate. Absolutely perfect for the heavier 200-220Gr bullets.
The rifle used to belong to an old friend (once the Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand) who unfortunately passed away recently. I had the good fortune of hunting a gigantic Seladang bison bull with this rifle in Chiengmai, Northern Thailand in 1979 when I was his guest.
In a rather poetic sense of irony, the rifle will now hopefully accompany my grandson on many first class Safaris to Africa (among other places). And hopefully, he’ll even let me use it now and then.
The French walnut stock and the metal bluing have really been put through their paces. But I think that I’ll leave the original stock, as is. If it could talk, it could probably tell us some good stories.
It’s an Anschutz Modell 110 in the venerable .30-06 Springfield caliber (a caliber with which I’ve enjoyed immense success over the years against both African plains game and leopards). Anschutz in Germany collaborated with Savage in the United States to build a limited production run of these rifles from 1963-1970 and retail them through the famed Waffen Frankonia in Germany. They were built on Savage Model 110 actions but the barrels were proofed and the weapons restocked in Germany.
This particular specimen carries the “167” date code, denoting a manufacture date of January 1967. It is built on one of the early Savage Model 110 actions that were produced between 1958-1965. These early actions featured an unique spring loaded ejector, compared to the conventional push-feed plunger type ejector which Savage began to employ in the Model 110 starting from 1966 onwards. It features a blind magazine with a 6 round capacity (5 in the magazine + 1 in the chamber) and the barrel has a 1:10 twist rate. Absolutely perfect for the heavier 200-220Gr bullets.
The rifle used to belong to an old friend (once the Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand) who unfortunately passed away recently. I had the good fortune of hunting a gigantic Seladang bison bull with this rifle in Chiengmai, Northern Thailand in 1979 when I was his guest.
In a rather poetic sense of irony, the rifle will now hopefully accompany my grandson on many first class Safaris to Africa (among other places). And hopefully, he’ll even let me use it now and then.
The French walnut stock and the metal bluing have really been put through their paces. But I think that I’ll leave the original stock, as is. If it could talk, it could probably tell us some good stories.
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